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artsy0wl · 1 year ago

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Why Obstagoon? A RaihanxPiers oneshot

I’m experimentimg with a blog series I have planned and RaihanxPiers (not to worry, I still like RaihanxLeon). Raihan just has to know, why is Obstagoon Piers’ ace.

Vibrating purrs blissfully escaped Obstagoon as Piers scratched behind his ears. After a long day dealing with an Impadimp infestation in Ballonlea and Team Yell’s overstimulating enthusiasm, the poor Dark Type deserved some spoiling.

Raihan had followed them home hoping to either challenge Piers to another battle or to hang out. Or both depending on how Piers was feeling.

Watching Obstagoon rest his head on Piers’ shoulder as he started petting him, curiosity crept in. It was pretty cute how Obstagoon seemed so affectionate with Piers. These Pokémon were feisty and scrappy. Certainly not this social in the wild in Raihan's experience. Yet, Piers’ Obstagoon seemed to love the attention and affection Piers gave him. Like a large bipedal Sylveon.

Piers certainly had a way with Dark Types. They loved him and Raihan was fairly certain that Piers was a Dark Type whisperer. Catching and trusting the Morpeko he caught for Marnie was proof of that. Yet, of all the Dark Types in Galar, Raihan was curious about one specifically for a very specific reason.

“Why Obstagoon?”

Piers’ head tilted. “Hm?”

Raihan got up and approached Piers. “Of all the Dark types in Galar, why is Obstagoon your ace? I always kind of saw you as a Grimmsnarl guy for an added punch against Fighting Types. Maybe even Scrafty.” He shrugged. “Heck, I feel like Toxtricity would be given your a musician and all. But Obstagoon?” Patting Obstagoon’s fur, he watched for possible defensive reactions. “He’s not delicate, but I’m sure it’s not easy battling against Bea or a well trained Lucario.”

Obstagoon snarled, snorting annoyingly. Piers chuckled, patting the Pokémon’s head. Nudging his head Piers silently motioned for Obstagoon to go inside.

“If we’re going off aesthetics, I think Obstagoon fits that perfectly.” Piers stated, opening the door. “And while I appreciate the concern, if you’re worried about his severe Fighting allergy,” he invited Raihan in once Obstagoon got inside and settled in, “we have work arounds for it. Besides, Obstagoon has been with me since I was eight. Ain’t no way I’m leaving him behind.”

“Oh?” Raihan followed Piers to the kitchen as Piers started to prepare dinner. “I assume he was your starter then.”

“More or less… Marnie! You home?!”

A door opened somewhere in the house. “Yeah!” Marnie shouted back.

“Burgers or curry?!”

“Curry! The spicy vegetarian one!”

“Alright!”

He chuckled as Marnie closed her door. He began bringing out ingredients, pots, and utensils while Raihan putz around the kitchen. As the water started warming up, Piers began chopping different a couple different vegetables and measuring out the spices.

“He’s actually the son of my family's Hoenn Linoone, Lonnie. He was a pretty mellow Linoone, and he didn't mind when five to six year old me tried to ride him like a Ponyta.” He chuckled at the memory.

“So you live in Hoenn?”

Piers nodded. “Born and raised until my father got a job in Hammerlocke when I was about eight and we had to move.”

“No kidding.” He glanced over at Obstagoon who was cozily resting on a heavily cushioned bed. “I’m guessing mom was a Galarian Linoone or and Obstagoon? Unless he hatched here and that caused a wonky region swicheroo.”

Piers nodded as he put the noodles in the now boiling water and the veggies in another pot. “We left him at the Daycare in Lilycove while we were on vacation to Alola.” He recalled, starting on the sauce. “During that time ended up getting pretty friendly with a Galarian Linoone named Luna. Didn’t expect it since he typically kept to himself and only really liked the Day Care workers.”

Raihan chuckled. “I’m guessing the owner of the Galarian Linoone wasn’t happy about Luna having an egg.”

“You’d think that but funnily enough, he wasn’t.” Piers set a timer for the pasta and veggies while he had the sauce warming up. He turned around leaning against the counter. “Sydney actually took it with humorous stride. Apparently, Luna was a rescue and he dropped Luna off hoping she could socialize with some other Pokémon while he was working on something for work.” Piers chuckled again. “He got that and then some.”

A spark shot across Raihan’s face as he stood up. “Wait… Sydney? As in Hoenn Elite Four Sydney?”

Piers nodded, scratching the back of his head. “Yeah.”

“That’s so cool.” Closing the gap between them, Raihan’s hands landed on both sides of Piers, holding the edges of the table. “Tell me more.”

Rolling his eyes, Piers groaned. “There isn’t much else to tell, but…”

As his parents continued to profusely apologize to Sydney, Piers wandered off. He knew not to go far, but Lonnie was already handling that as he trotted alongside him. Looking around, Piers was curious about Luna.

She looked so different from Lonnie, yet they were the same Pokémon. Lonnie’s fur was shades of tan while Luna was black and white. Her eyes were red while Lonnie’s were icy blue. And where Lonnie seemed aloft with an indifferent resting face, Luna looked so mischievous with a toothy grin.

Piers started walking towards Luna with Lonnie right beside him. She didn't seem mean despite her impish grin. And if Sydney saved her, she must have been nice.

Luna, who had been resting up until that point, blinked. Fur stood up cautiously as Piers got closer. She might not have seen him as a threat, but she also wasn’t sure if she could trust him yet. She let out a hiss when Piers took a step she didn’t like. This seemed to catch the attention of Sydney, but he didn’t react just yet.

Piers flinched, readjusting his position. Once he was close enough for comfort, he sat in front of Luna. Luna winced, sitting up. Bowing his head, Piers set his hands on the ground, inching one closer to her.

“Hi. I’m Piers.” He greeted. “You’re very pretty. It’s so cool that your fur matches my hair.”

Luna scanned the boy, curiously. Still on edge, she leaned forward a little to sniff him. Piers smiled as Luna sat back down. Her head tilted slightly as his smiled at her.

“I’m sorry if Lonnie was being rude.” Piers playfully tapped his head. “He’s friendly, but can be too friendly sometimes.”

Lonnie rolled his eyes as he stretched across Piers and lied down. Knocking his hand, Lonnie requested attention. Piers caved, petting Lonnie as he watched Luna.

“Can we be friends?” Piers asked.

Luna tilted her head again, considering his inquiry. Standing on all fours, she leaned in closer to Piers, startling him. She paused for a moment before sniffing him again. This time, taking in the aura from Lonnie as she did.

Her clawed paws hopped, sitting on Lonnie as she got a closer look at the boy. Piers’ heart was pounding as he watched Luna motionlessly. One wrong move and he could be toast.

A gasp escaped Piers, which alarmed his parents. However, Sydney stopped them as giggling ensued. Luna’s tail was wagging as Piers hugged her. She was licking him. Lonnie had moved, not wanting to get caught up in the fray. A shadow covered them, causing Luna to back off and curl up next to Piers.

“That was amazing.” Sydney praised, crouching down. “Luna hasn’t really liked anyone since I got her. Not even me most days.”

“She’s very nice.” Piers complemented.

Sydney nodded. “That she is.” He glanced at Luna, who was now contently purring. “You know what?” He went over to the day care couple, coming back with an egg. “I think you should have this?”

“That won’t be necessary, Sydney, sir.” Piers’ father chimed in. “He’s only eight. Too young to be a trainer.”

“If Luna is willing to trust him, I think he can start preparing.” He glanced at Piers. “Besides, you’re going to need Piers to help Luna get adjusted to living with you.” He pat Piers’ head. “And kid, I think you have a great future ahead of you.”

“My parents weren’t thrilled at first, but Luna proved to be a valuable member of the family.” Piers ran a hand through his hair. “She also seemed to be more at peace when we moved to Galar. Especially in her senior years. She probably felt at home.”

Hearing the timer go off, Piers twirled out from Raihan’s trap. As Piers turned off the oven and moved pots around, Raihan grabbed plates. Arms wrapped around Piers as he finished setting up the table.

“That was such a cute story.” Raihan complemented. “You know what I liked most about your story?”

“Hm?”

“When the big bad Flygon steals a kiss.”

“There was no…”

A quick kiss planted itself on Piers’ forehead. A second moved to his cheek. The last on porcelain lips.

“Raihan!” Piers gasped, playfully elbowing Raihan. “You don’t need to be so needy.”

“Hey, you let Obstagoon be affectionate. It’s my turn now.”

Raihan kissed Piers again as Marnie entered the dining room. This time hugging Piers. Marnie just glared at Raihan as her brother turned a shade if rose red.

“Sorry Marnie.” Raihan apologized with a smirk. “Your brother’s such a cute little Linoone that I couldn’t resist.”

She rolled her eyes, though she wouldn’t admit she was actually rather amused. Obstagoon, meanwhile, nudged Raihan with a growl, even less amused by the display. Piers patted Obstagoon’s back as he silently noted that everything was okay, his face still visibly red. And though Obstagoon would yield, Raihan couldn’t help but feel sinister daggers burning into him throughout dinner.

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meistoshi · 1 year ago

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obligatory shit’s fucked bad end verse (future verse, 27+).

satoshi does what he does, what he usually does, gets caught up in some crisis or disaster of a sort, one that threatens on a regional scale at a minimum, as per the norm. he gets caught up in bickerings between gods & mortals, & gods & gods, & mortals & mortals, & he does what he does. he charges in head first, trying to protect everyone, trying to save everyone, trying to mediate where he believes he can, to quell anger & burst the bubbles of arrogance in man’s minds. he goes in, he does what he's done for well over half of his life … & he fails.

he fails to protect friends, he fails to protect his pokémon, he fails to save the lives of far too many of those endangered in the crisis. maybe he succeeds in thwarting the source of it all. but he fails in everything else. he fails where it matters. worst of all, he fails in protecting pikachu. & his worst self, — the insecure & traumatized & bitter & angry & self-isolating-in-the-face-of-hardship man he is beneath all the optimism & courage & bravado that he projects, — that is what he becomes, or rather, it's something he can no longer find the energy & strength to cover up & pretend doesn't exist anymore, neither for others nor himself, so it's what he lets himself drown in just that little more.

he still cares about people, cares about the world, wants to protect it just as much as always, he basically does all the things he's always done. but he does far less for the sheer fun of it, he doesn't try being the strongest for his own sake anymore, he does it for the sake of being stronger, for the sake of being capable of protecting everyone. competitive battling doesn't matter to him as much anymore unless he knows for certain that it'll provide him with a challenge that'll make him stronger.

he seeks out gen & any other aura adepts for better understanding of aura & wave guidance to become a wave guardian, something that had only in passing crossed satoshi's mind before due to his focus on battling & travel. but he learns, he trains.

he pays much closer attention to gangs & the like, throughout his continued travels keeping in touch with all the champions & elites & gym leaders, & keeps in touch with the interpol through the junsar network & run-ins with looker.

his primary partner is now lucario, with absol & at least one large flying pokémon on his belt at all times, the specific pokémon rotates depending on necessity.

#TURNS OUT I HADNT REPOSTED :)#SHIT'S FUCKED BE UPON YE #ooc. pkmn is autistic culture.#v. bad end.

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west-tokyo-incidents · 1 year ago

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IVE GOT IT.

The masters are regular pokemon that have been altered by their connection with a strange new kind of pokemon that's appeared. Similar to Ultra Beasts, possibly! To be determined. But once their form change has been triggered, they can't change back and can't be renamed.

Vice/Ultimo/Milieu would be ones that have been altered by humans for a terrible experiment, each thought to embody evil/good/neutrality. The others are all generally natural, or at least naturally occuring.

For our mythicals, each one exists in both versions, but you can only get them by having the corresponding Evil or Good legendary, so they're post-game and technically if you get traded the other version's legendary, you can get both in the same game.

There's a Luxray called Fusataro. She's one of a long standing line of Shinx who've been guarding an ancient theater, each who are partners to the current head of the family who's owned the theater. She is stalwart and aloof at your presence, at least until you finish the game, where she shows some interest. She will lead you down a secret tunnel in the theater, and you face her, in place of a trainer, and the guardian of the theater, Dark/Electric type weasel-bull based pokemon. She changes form during the battle and becomes Electric/Dark. If you defeat the Rage pokemon and thus her, you can capture Rage and if you do, she'll volunteer herself to go with you.

On the other side of the coin, there's a Lucario named Murayama who guards a police station instead with an almost identical story. A line of Riolu who've served the police force for centuries. Sophia is a Psychic/Steel, and Murayama becomes a Steel/Psychic upon changing forms.

The two families are at odds, with the theater group being more about freedom of expression and loud music, while the police force are about order and control. But at the core, both sides are corrupted by money. Their pokemon lines see in you a chance to return their families to what they once were, and offer you the chance to meet and befriend the ancient god-like pokemon both sides worshipped long ago before they were sealed away.

If you get both, there's probably some heartfelt cutscenes.

For Paresse and Regula, they're probably teased with a mountain pass you can't enter, the way blocked by a strange, one-eyed Banette or an odd, darkly colored Kirlia. For the Evil line, you'll get news of a Banette causing trouble and harassing everyone it comes across in the town closest to the mountain pass. For the Good, you'll hear word of a weird Kirlia causing people to forget things for seemingly no reason in that same town. When you investigate, both will lead you, in a seeming panic, up the mountain.

The Kirlia, named Sayama, will lead you to a Buddhist temple that looks to be ransacked, and you both have to find and then help calm a panicking Fighting/Fire pokemon who lost its previous connection pokemon in a battle, a Hariyama. The Kirlia will then take the Hariyama's place and both will join your team.

The Banette will do something similar, but takes you even higher up the mountain, to the peak, where you find the Fighting/Grass pokemon in mourning over something in its coils. You and the Banette have to journey to find something to get it to let go of what it's clinging to, and when you return and get it to... cheer up, essentially(it's a Pokemon game it can be light-hearted), you find that it was mourning a one-eyed Absol.

Both cover the idea of what happens when one of these dependant pokemon-god-things(still pending) loses its previous Master pokemon.

As for the other douji, I'm not sure if they should be the exact same concept. I feel like it could make there be too many legendaries. So maybe there are a slightly less powerful version of the same bonding mechanic, where certain already-existing pokemon can take forms when paired up with the right partner pokemon, but they can be reverted back?

Idk. Thoughts happening.

#fakemon au #idk if ill include OCs #at least not yet OTL #maybe as the elite four #Shear Garion Kia and Anzhuō #and idfk who as the champion ngl #maybe Dunstan and he can be both champion and the antagonist.

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ayuki-ikuya · 3 years ago

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Fellow Piers simp with a trainersona here and a separate oc with Rai: ✨Go for it homie✨ Go absolutely ape! Tell us about her

OKAY

so I've tried doing research about Johto before writing about her since I have little information about Johto.

Johto is based off from Japan (it's more eastern qualities) while Kanto was a more westernized Japan (if you watched Geisha, it shows the transition from Japan transitioning to more western style after the war.)

So the name Katsumi was given. I believe her name meaning is "eternal beauty" but I'm not sure.

If I were to describe Katsumi, she'd be a Ninetales or a Fox. She has this air about her that draws her in, it's soothing even. But as she battles, she's more two faced than she seems, being more mocking and maybe even animalistic than her kinder self.

She does restrain herself from her more dark side, because a common rule as a maiko and geisha, is to always look and be pretty to capture the attention of others.

Katsumi is based off from the Kimono Girls in Johto, the Kimono girls are actually Maiko's as they tie their obi's sash long while normal is tucked in or tied short (same with a Geisha's) however, in Pokemon, they don't wear heavy makeup that way they can battle appropriately while still maintaining looks.

Since I'm basing Katsumi from Maiko's, she learns various arts, from dance to music to cooking. And of course, even when away from Johto, she still practices dancing (she prefers dancing over music) which has caught several pokemons attention in the past.

Her Johto team consists of:

Lucario

Gyrados

And Chansey.

Her Galar team will be:

Gyrados (from her Johto team)

Eevee (who will evolve into Umbreon)

Deino (who evolves into zwelious then Hydregion)

Munchlax (evolves into Snorlax)

Kirlia (evolves into Gardevior)

And Puncham (evolves into Pangoro)

I won't disclose when she catches them (which will be in the story I'm writting) nor their abilities and move sets. I can tell you that Katsumi favors Dark Types.

Katsumi makes her first appearance in the Gym Battle Opening Ceremony! Her exotic looks catching many of the people's attention.

Having to fight the Yell team since they were blocking Budew Inn, she does her first official Pokemon Battle in Galar with her Gyrados who swept them away with Twister!

Katsumi calls out her pokemon rather eloquently. Like, "Let's dance amongst the water, Gyrados", Katsumi is a lover of drama and theatrics, so she likes to put on a show which is apart of her two faced-ness.

If I were to place Katsumi as a Game Character, she'd be an Easter Egg and a very Hidden Boss. The main Characters wouldn't be able to fight her unless level 100 as the final boss is also level 100, meaning she's far more challenging than she looks in the beginning.

You'd be able to fight her in the tournaments after becoming a Galar Champion (beating Leon) but because she makes rare appearances, it's hard to fight her. If Leon and Katsumi ever get matched up, it usually ends in either Katsumi winning or a draw depending on ALL of your Pokémon level. (All 100 = Katsumi winning)

Her relationships would mostly be the children of the house she moved to as a tenant (which is in the same place for the Opening Ceremony hence why she hasn't caught any other pokemon in Galar yet)

Katsumi prefers pokemon over people. People means maintaining herself to appear appropriately and having to be more polite than she wants to do to etiquette. While with pokemon, she can bond with them more easily through being herself (her more rougher side).

As for her league cards, she has two special league cards which is dependent on which version you're playing.

Sword version is her more wild side, showing her face during her battles (more on Leon or Raihan's battle since her face shows more during their fight)

Sword version notes: seeing the ever so gentle Johto girl being fierce to rival Raihan is an odd sight, but pleasant to finally see a crack in her ever so pretty mask.

Shield version gets her more softer side, showing her dancing in a field without knowing about the picture.

Shield version notes: A picture that was taken in secret, you can see how gentle she is with how she stands, the pokemon around her watching her still form. How can someone be this elegant?

Her normal League Card is just the standard card but she angles herself towards the left (our left mind you) with her head angled towards the camera with a serene smile.

As for her relationship with Raihan and Piers, Raihan was intrigued by her, knowing the Dragon Type master in Johto, and seeing her appear on Pokegram every once in awhile (until she got Kirlia) sends a shiver down his spine since he can sorta get a feeling that she's hiding more than she seems.

Piers never met her, but has heard of her from Team Yell and Marnie when they met up in Spikemuth. When Katsumi appeared herself, he nearly choked seeing a "Pretty lil' dainty thing in this dump". his words, not mine. But because Piers oh so happens to be a dark type gym leader, Katsumi had immediately grew attached to him which shocked a lot of people.

Katsumi, the goddess from eastern lands, paired with THE Piers? The shock was an understatement.

Piers did appreciate her adoration to dark type pokemon though. And her need to be on the same level as him in battle as it was the Johto way to be fair.

If we wanna dive into the romance interests then:

Raihan is absolutely clingy to Katsumi and always wants to fight her. It's his way showing how devoted he is to her by challenging her to fights often after training and resting. And he hopes Katsumi would notice. If we went into a more NSFW style, Raihan is the epitome of clinginess. Because he's so tall compared to Katsumi, he'd use his jacket and put it over her, forcing her to either poke her head out to see or to try and escape which ends up him wrapping his arms around her. And when he does capture her, Raihan would drag her to a more secluded area and start marking her neck with bites and hickies. If he gets REALLY worked up (specially after a battle against Katsumi) he'd take his coat off, wrap it around her, tie the sleeves and then sling her onto his shoulder and with his long ass legs, he'd be heading to his apartment.

For Piers, he's not really affectionate or seen as affectionate, but he would often be near Katsumi whenever they were both free. Whenever he is affectionate he'd wrap an arm or two around Katsumi and bring her closer to him. For NSFW, Piers would be slightly clingy, but not as bad as Raihan since Piers is busy with being an artist (music artist btw) and training Marnie to be a gym leader. But whenever they're together, Piers would be resting his head on Katsumi's shoulder or head depending on their sitting position. Anytime Katsumi gets a call or goes to escape somewhere, Piers would grab a hold of her chin and kiss her rather passionately, which would leave Katsumi breathless since Piers literally has a long tongue, and he uses it. If Katsumi is still out of it (or continues to try to escape), Piers would take her to his place or to the campsite.

Katsumi has long black hair which reaches to her lower back, having four beauty marks total on her face, two right below her right eye (our left), one below her left eye (our right) and one at the right corner of her lips (our left).

(I think of drawing as a mirror, if you draw a character's face you have to think about the blemishes placement. If their back is to you, then it's both of your rights and lefts while facing each other is their left is your right and their right is your left. Sorry if it's confusing.)

She has black eyes (whenever in an intense battle, her eyes darken with no highlight making her appear soulless but it just means her facade is cracking) and thick eyelashes, her lips are painted red on her bottom lip while the corners of her eyes are touched with a rouge since she is a Maiko Trainer.

(I made up that Kimono Girls are Maiko Trainers, meaning they wear less makeup and have a battle/formal kimono, a traveling kimono and sleep wear. Normal Maiko's wears the standard makeup and wears more formal kimono's. Maiko trainers require to wear a sort of eye shadow at the corner of their eyes in replacement for the lack of white makeup on their face, it is to signal other Maiko's what status they are. If they wear red/rogue eye shadow, then they are an advance/master maiko trainer. If blue, then they are an intermediate. If pink then they are a beginner. Maiko trainers also have to wear certain color palettes to signal what stage they are which often correlates to their eye shadow. Since Maiko's in general wear lighter colors, they wear pastels or just a light shade.)

Katsumi wears a light pink kimono that fades to a light red at the ends of her kimono. Her obi sash being a deeper red while her obiage is white. Her nagajuban is red as per tradition, her pocchuri buckle is silver flowers, while her okobo shoes still maintains the red straps and still contains bells in them.

Fun fact about Maiko's, Maiko's are usually 16-20 years old mainly because Maiko's would choose to marry around that age, while Geisha's would have to retire or runaway (depending on time period) to marry. Geisha's aren't allowed to have a spouse, the most they can have close to a spouse is an escort.

THIS IS ALL FOR NOW! I'LL PUT UP SOME DOODLES ABOUT KATSUMI (WITH AN OCCASIONAL RAIHAN/PIER OR TWO)

#pokemon oc #pokemon johto #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon

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punz4lyfe · 3 years ago

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Wasted Plotential: Journeys Episode 68 (Part 2)

Part 2: Gary and the Moltres Battle

Picking off where the last part ended up on, the episode begins with Ash and Goh searching around the woods for Infernape. As the two call out his name, Staraptor soars through and Buizel uses the rivers to search at areas far off from his trainer. As they search, Goh remarks how impossible it’s gonna be to find Infernape in such a dense forest without any signs, but Ash reassures him that they can do it. He also admits he isn’t too surprised of Infernape continuing to train by himself, stating how much battling means to the Pokemon while flashbacking to some of Infernape’s most proudest battles, such as Candice’s Abomasnow and Volkner’s Luxray.

After recalling those moments, Ash meets up with Staraptor and Buizel who both confirm their lack of signs for their former comrade. Thanking them for their efforts, Ash returns them into their Pokeballs so they could rest up and that’s when Goh notices a nearby Pidgeotto. Just like in the original episode, Goh fails to capture it, as well as the Onix encountered afterwards, leading to two to get saved by Gary and his Blastoise.

Gary’s interactions with Ash and Goh in the og episode were honestly REALLY good, and so for the sake of padding out runtime, events of the episode will play out as they did in the original while expanding a bit more on the dialogue. For example, perhaps Gary could point out Goh’s flaw of recklessly throwing Pokeballs at Pokemon without weakening them first. While Goh would state that his approach has been successful most of the time, Gary would rebuttal that maybe he’s just been lucky this whole time. Or when talking about Project Mew, Gary could mention some of his past missions to fill up Goh’s own interest more. Maybe, as a reference to Goh’s Suicune, Gary could have had encounters with Entei, Raikou, and a different Suicune, stating he had to retrieve samples of Entei’s fire, Raikou’s electricity (it’s pokemon dont question it), and Suicune’s water in order to pass. Additionally, prior to this mission, he’s also succeeded in gaining feathers from an Articuno and Zapdos. Of course, as he explains what he’s done so far, Ash will be impressed and state how proud and happy he is for Gary for being able to take part in such experiences, sparking up Goh’s jealousy even further.

As the three make their way to the mountain where Moltres and Infernape are up, Goh, due to his lackluster physique compared to Ash and Gary, accidentally winds falling in a river and risking him and Grookey falling down a waterfall. Ash prepares to send out Buizel to rescue them, but Gary insists to leave it to Blastoise due to his stronger and bulkier body. As Blastoise makes his way towards Gary and Grookey, the two end up falling over, but Blastoise leaps off and catches them in time before he starts to swim UP the waterfall to get them all back to safety. The rescue is a success and the plot moves on.

Again, things play out the same way at the peak, but when Ash and Infernape reunite, we get a more wholesome-ish hug with Ash happily spinning Infernape around, just as they hugged after their fight against Volkner. Ash also formally introduces Infernape to Goh and Grookey, with the latter having a huge admiration for the taller, stronger, more experienced primate as Infernape pets his head in a friendly manner.

And that, my friends, is when Moltres appears. Instead of everyone taking turns for no good reason, the encounter is instantly declared a Raid Battle (just as Ash, Goh, and Team Rocket did with Zapdos), with Ash using Infernape, Goh sending out Cinderace, and Gary sending out Blastoise. At the beginning, all three of them rely on ranged attacks to keep a safe distance, but Moltres’ speed proves near-impossible to land a good hit as it moves in closer to the three mons, forcing them to rely on physical moves. As a demonstration of Infernape’s greater power compared Cinderace’s, when Cinderace tries to attack Moltres with a Blaze Kick, it gets effortlessly blocked, but then Infernape goes in for a Mach Punch and actually does some damage to it, which slightly annoys Cinderace. Additionally, Cinderace attempts to block an incoming Air Slash with Pyro Ball, but that fails and causes him to get badly hurt. Moltres then tries another Air Slash to finish Cinderace off, but Infernape quickly steps in between the attack and Cinderace to intercept it with Flamethrower, this time completely cancelling it.

Despite this, Cinderace finds himself too exhausted to get up, forcing Goh to. withdraw from the Raid Battle as he brings Cinderace out of the battlefield for his safety. After performing more or less the same way he did in the original episode, Blastoise attempts to take down Moltres with Hydro Cannon (because why the fuck would nerf that down to Water Pulse while Infernape’s Sinnoh moveset remained the same?!), but Moltres avoids the attack and, because of Blastoise needing to recharge and already being in a fatigued state from rescuing Goh and Grookey, takes down the Water-type with Air Slash, making Blastoise’s defeat a little less contrived and a little less bullshit. Gary recalls Blastoise and, desperate to succeed in his mission, prepares to send out Electivire while offering Goh to borrow his Umbreon, but Ash requests for them not to, knowing how much this battle means to Infernape and that he believes they will finish the job for Gary’s sake. Understanding Ash’s reasoning, Gary withdraws, as well as Goh after he retrieves a supportive look from Grookey, who also wants to see his new idol win by himself.

So now it’s just Infernape against Moltres. While careful to avoid any Air Slashes, Ash and Infernape deliberately rush in to take potshots while occasionally managing to deal in good hits with Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, and Mach Punch. They also use Dig to either avoid powerful blows or use the debris to eliminate a Fire Spin. However, Gary and Goh are confused why Ash and Infernape are now behaving more recklessly, but then Gary soon realizes what the two are trying to do. Just after Goh asks him on what he means by that, his attention is instantly taken back to Infernape when they see him get hit by a powerful Burn Up attack, taking away Moltres’ Fire-typing.

However, Infernape is not done yet. This is exactly where he and Ash wanted to land at. His body glows red. He gets back to his feet. And with a roar of pride and power, Infernape’s head flame ignites to severe proportions. Just as Gary notes; Infernape’s Blaze has been activated, shocking Goh and Cinderace as Grookey cheers loudly for Infernape, as does Pikachu nearby Ash. Ash smirks confidently before he asks Infernape if he’s ready to end this. Infernape replies with another roar and Ash tells him to use Flamethrower. Moltres attempts to cancel it with Fire Spin, but Infernape’s flame only eats up Moltres’ before landing its mark. Moltres quickly flies back up and uses Fire Spin again, this time working as Infernape slowly takes damage from the surrounding flames. With its opponent trapped, Moltres uses Air Slash to finish up, but on Ash’s command, Infernape simply uses a rapid series of Mach Punch to block every single air... wave... slash... thing.

And now it’s time to end things. Ash tells Infernape to use Flare Blitz and Infernape uses his heightened head flame to absorb Moltres’ Fire Spin, adding it to his own power, and takes off towards the legendary bird as a humongous fire ball of rage. The attacks hit down on, causing a huge explosion that heavily damages Moltres and causes it to drop a feather, which Gary notices. Now realizing it stands no chance against Infernape, Moltres uses Burn Up again to briefly light the area and disorientate everyone else on the mountain before taking off. But despite Moltres’ retreat, Infernape feels completely satisfied from the fight, as it shows with a victorious Flamethrower to the air. Blaze then deactivates, but Ash catches Infernape before he could collapse, telling him how proud he is and that he practically won due to Moltres’ retreating. Grookey then quickly approaches Infernape with sparkly eyes full of admiration with Goh and Cinderace joining them as the former supports Ash’s statement on Infernape’s technical victory. Gary retrieves the Moltres feather, passes his mission, and they all return to the lab.

Once again, events and dialogue play out the same only with Tracey involved as well. Gary leaves, Goh decides to join Project Mew, and now, Ash tells his current team that it’s time to go back to Cerise’s, so they all say goodbye to their new friends. Dragonite tearfully hugs Charizard, who returns the gesture while lightly patting his back with a sympathetic expression. Gengar shares one last laugh with Glalie. Lucario shakes hands with Sceptile. Dracovish happily gets hugged by Totodile and Gible. And Sirfetch’d... ends up getting attacked by Bayleef’s Vine Whip and Oshawott’s Razor Shell as revenge for preventing from hugging Ash earlier.

The episode ends with Goh using his Rotom Phone to take an updated version of Best Wishes final group photo, with Ash and Pikachu sitting at the middle while surrounded by all of his Pokemon at Oak’s lab and his current team. Special notices go to Infernape sitting next to Ash, one arm wrapped around shoulder and giving a thumbs up with the other hand, Lucario and Sceptile standing back-to-back against each other with crossed arms and confident smirks, and Totodile and Gible both posing on top of the ever-so-jolly Dracovish. This photo is also the final frame as well because it would make sense for one of the hype points of the episode to be the focal point of how things end off instead of Goh and Grookey for no reason.

And yeah, that’s how’ll I would rewrite Episode 68. Events still play out more or less the same, only with more time focused on certain points to expand interaction and dynamics. Thanks for reading and, since this is basically my first real rewrite project, feel free to tell me your thoughts on it!

#pokemon #pokemon journeys #anipoke #pokeani #ash ketchum #pikachu #infernape #goh #cinderace #grookey #gary oak #blastoise #electivire #professor oak #tracey sketchit #project mew #moltres

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mysmashplaythroughs · 4 years ago

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Jigglypuff Playthrough (Fire Red)

Fighter: Jigglypuff

Game: Pokémon Fire Red, Game Boy Advance. First Released on January 29th 2004.

Fighter Bio.

Jigglypuff is known as the balloon Pokémon, being the evolution of Igglybuff and evolving into Wigglytuff with the use of a Moon Stone. With its nature as a balloon Pokémon it can increase its size by inhaling air and in some cases deflate itself becoming almost flat. It can use its large eyes to mesmerize opponents and when it has their attention then inflates its lungs before singing a melody. The melody varies from place to place with it even in some cases simply sounding like it’s shouting, however it is very skilled at putting opponents to sleep with its voice. It is often found in lush green plains and grassy meadows. There have not particularly been many notable specific Jigglypuff in the game series with the only one that really sticks out being one which sits in the Pokémon Centre in Pewter City. If talked to it will sing its song, which matches the theme from the anime. An NPC nearby will say how when it sings he feels sleepy and in Pokémon Yellow, if Pikachu is following and Jigglypuff sings it will fall asleep.

Enemies/Rivals: Honestly, this barely counts as a rivalry, but in the anime, which aspects of Super Smash Bros have been inspired by when it comes to Pokémon, there is an episode where Jigglypuff seems to have a rivalry with Clefairy. The two species tend to live in the vicinity of each other when it comes to Kanto with Jigglypuff living on the route leading to Mount Moon and Clefairy living within Mount Moon, however nothing beyond an episode of the anime has been specifically stated, still I wanted to mention it at least.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Similar to Pikachu and most other Pokémon, Jigglypuff hasn’t really had any crossovers with other Smash characters outside of its series. There was a cameo of the game Mario & Wario in the Kanto games, appearing on the tv in the character Copycat’s house, but that is the closest there has been to an actual crossover. With Jigglypuff being far less prominent than Pikachu it has also not had as many appearances overall.

Why this game?

I was going to say this was a fairly simple choice before, however very recently I have considered instead doing a separate game for Jigglypuff, specifically due to a new release, but because this release was so recent I decided instead to stick with my original game for Jigglypuff being Fire Red. I will get to the other game down the line, but I feel as it’s still so new I’d rather give it some time before talking about it. I will mention an aspect why I considered that game later on in this post, and if you look at my list of games I’ve completed you’ll probably be able to work out what game it was I considered. As for why Fire Red, well as with Pikachu, it’s simply that I consider Fire Red and Leaf Green as the definitive Kanto experiences when it comes down to it, and when I can, I like to play either the game generation where a Pokémon debuted or in some cases where they gained a significant feature, such as a Mega Evolution.

My past with this Pokémon.

So, unlike with Pikachu, I don’t feel there’s an awful lot I can say about Jigglypuff, despite me having been with the series since Gen 1. When it comes to the games, Jigglypuff is somewhat interesting to me, it’s a fairly unique Pokémon that only shows up uncommonly in one location in Kanto. As such, compared to a lot of the other Pokémon you find on that Route Jigglypuff stands out a fair bit being sort of a similar novelty in my mind to Pikachu in Viridian Forest. Of course, the bigger role for Jigglypuff and most likely why it was chosen for Super Smash Bros was its appearance in the anime, with a specific Jigglypuff being a recurring extra who would sing to people putting everyone there asleep. Jigglypuff then would get angry that everyone slept through its song and draw on their faces. This role seemed to make Jigglypuff somewhat popular back in the early days of the series, however over time Jigglypuff stopped appearing in the anime (which is understandable as it would outlast its welcome, like some other running jokes could in the anime) and overall faded somewhat in prominence, with other Pokémon from the first Generation overtaking it’s popularity in recent years such as Charizard and Eevee.

It’s due to this people for some time, myself admittedly included tended to think if any character would likely get cut from the Super Smash Bros roster it would be Jigglypuff, but I’m glad they’ve not. Jigglypuff is an unconventional character, being just simply a regular Pokémon and not one who’s been promoted really heavily like Lucario for example, so I appreciate its presence all these years. As for past Gen 1, Jigglypuff has only really had two notable changes. The first was it gained a pre-evolution or ‘baby form’ in Igglybuff, which is one of those Pokémon I tend to forget exist sometimes. (This isn’t to say I dislike it, just that it, Cleffa and Happiny are Pokémon I’ve not really had on one of my teams before, and I’ve only in recent years started really using the breeding mechanics in the games.) The second big development for Jigglypuff is one which happened for a few older Pokémon in Gen 6, that being the introduction of a new Pokémon type, Fairy. With this new type introduced, some older Pokémon gained this as a secondary type, with Jigglypuff in this case becoming a Normal Fairy type. As a Pokémon, Jigglypuff’s evolutionary line tend to have fairly high HP. I’m not an expert really on how good certain Pokémon are comparatively to others etc, so all I can really say is in my experience I remember Wigglytuff being able to take a few blows similar to Chansey and Clefable. With that said however, I believe out of the three it’s the one which can take the least hits as its defence isn’t particularly good, it just has a lot of HP. With it gaining a fairy typing it got a few more advantages with access to better moves, its main strength being special rather than physical attacks overall.

My Smash Playthrough.

At the end of my playthrough of Fire Red my Jigglypuff was at level 57 with the ability cute charm and a calm nature, having been caught on Route 3 at level 5. The moves Jigglypuff has are Sing, Double-Edge, Pound and Rest. In order for Jigglypuff to use rollout in this game it has to be bred and inherit the move as an egg move, however breeding in Fire Red is only available in the post-game, therefore I decided for this playthrough to go for a move at least close to it. I decided on Double-Edge due to the risk rollout holds in Super Smash Bros since you can easily go off the stage with it if you’re not careful. I felt this matched Double Edge damaging the user. Honestly, when it came down to it, Jigglypuff was the weakest member of my team alongside Squirtle. I feel like Wigglytuff would likely have stood more of a chance, although only perhaps in the sense it could have survived maybe an attack and respond, but Jigglypuff, other than with regular Pokémon Trainers and wild Pokémon, would only really be useful taking a hit so I could heal up other team members. I believe earlier in the game it managed to pull off one or two victories, mostly only being able to get the final blow on an opponent my other Pokémon had weakened already, however Jigglypuff’s low speed meant this was still risky. There was one occasion where Jigglypuff stood out in my run, with a lot of luck against Agatha. Jigglypuff was able somehow to avoid hypnosis 4 times and put Gengar to sleep with sing, allowing me to recover my team and take them down. That run of the Elite 4 was unsuccessful, but it was probably Jigglypuff’s shining moment. Overall however there weren’t many memories I really had with Jigglypuff specifically in my playthrough and they ended up being one of the team members I had to spend the most time trying to keep up with the rest of the team in levels. I do have to give Jigglypuff credit on one front however, its sing move was very useful in catching Pokemon without having to switch to a weaker team, it could take the hits of weaker wild Pokemon and just keep going until they were put to sleep, not to mention its low attack stat often meaning it could use pound without knocking them down in one blow.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Jigglypuff in Smash.

So, as stated earlier, I mostly kept the same moves for Jigglypuff as in Super Smash Bros, with Pound, Rest and Sing, however Rollout was unavailable until the post-game for Fire Red. With this said, in later games I have put together teams of the Pokémon from Smash with all the moves they need, so I have a Jigglypuff with Pound, Rest, Sing and Rollout. I did have this Pokémon in Pokémon Ultra Moon which was originally where I was going to leave this, however, with the Isle of Armour update in Sword and Shield, I was able to get Jigglypuff in that game. The reason this is something I was particularly pleased for relates to the final aspect of Jigglypuff in Smash, that being its Final Smash. In Super Smash Bros, Jigglypuff will use Puff Up, a move where it inflates to a giant size, pushing all others off the stage before reverting back to its regular size. This move wasn’t based on anything specifically from the games, beyond Jigglypuff being described as the balloon Pokémon and having a great lung capacity. What’s funny is that in Sword and Shield, Dynamaxing was introduced, where Pokémon will grow to a giant size. Jigglypuff wasn’t available in the base game, but with the update adding it to the game however, it gained access to Dynamaxing, being very close to it’s Puff Up Final Smash. It was for this reason I considered playing Sword and Shield as the game for this Pokémon, however in the end I figured I will cover that game later (and there’s a lot to say on it) and for now I would stick with Fire Red for Jigglypuff. Finally, I caught Jigglypuff in a regular Pokeball, matching the regular Pokeball thrown onto the stage in its entrance animation in Smash.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Bulbapedia.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Pokemon Ultra Moon’s Photo Club feature and the screenshot feature on the Nintendo Switch.

#Jigglypuff #Pokemon #Pokemon Fire Red #Gameboy Advance #GBA #Super Smash Bros #My Smash Playthrough #My Smash Playthroughs

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inikavulpixelreviews · 6 years ago

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Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Z...eroara?

570: Zorua

Welp. This is it. It's all downhill from here. This is the highlight. The big triumph over my heart. We won't see another Pokemon be able to top this one across the entirety of this review series. (Unless of course something even more perfect graces us in a future Generation...)

That's right folks. If you know me from my personal blog, it may be no surprise that I absolutely adore Zorua here. I've done my best to not outright say it on here, but I wouldn't be surprised if I laid out less than subtle hints. If not, well, er. Here it is. Zorua, my absolute #1 favorite Pokemon. And if that's not enough, these two collectively are also my favorite evolutionary family to boot!

And while I'll make an entire segment to just gush about both of them, I'll cover the two individually since they're fairly aesthetically different from each other.

Zorua here is the absolute perfect fox creature for me. Literally the only absent bit to it is that it's not a baby nine-tailed fox. But we'll be fair since we've already come up with one, and this one has a cooler theme at least just stand-alone as a fox. The tricky and shady look to it isn't just a personality choice; this Pokemon can change its appearance on a whim. Emphasis on appearance though. It's not like ditto where it'll literally shapeshift, but rather more like an illusionist; only appearing to shape shift. Which can create situations where you can fake-out opponents (or cheese the computer-controlled trainers by making it take on the shape of a Poison type as they desperately try to hit it wish Psychic moves that just won't work for whatever reason.)

The lil guy's tuft of hair even takes on the appearance of a little leaf over its head. Giving it some Tanooki vibes! Which is a Japanese mythical creature I'm surprised took this long for us to get a representative of. And even then, it's a fairly indirect one. It loses the look entirely when it evolves, but it at least fits with Zorua between the “leaf” on its head and the ability to psuedo-shape-shift.

Not to mention, Zorua's also got a bit of sentimental value being not only the first Pokemon I've laid eyes on from Gen 5 (comes with being the first of the two revealed, alongside Zoroark). But also this little bit of self-trivia I suppose. By now, a lot of people that follow me on any social medias or art sites will see me draw plenty of Pokemon the day they're announced to exist in a trailer or what-have-you, especially if I like them a lot. Zorua's the very first time I've ever done this. I guess granting I didn't start taking art seriously until well after Gen 4 was released, but still.

Personal Score: 10/10

I'm not quite done talking about Zorua, but let's get a word in for Zoroark too before we really get into gushing mode.

571: Zoroark

Zoroark may understandably be a put-off given it had marketing advertising it as the next Lucario and it's another anthropomorphic canid. But Zoroark is leagues ahead of Lucario with an overall tighter theme and aesthetic. Zoroark looks much more animalistic; mostly enough to be firmly out of any uncanny valley that it would have fallen in, and its design elements flow much better than Lucario's rather clunky execution. So I didn't mind Gamefreak trying to push this one as the “your new favorite Pokemon” shtick they like to pull. That's very selfish I know, but...

It's also very unique given anthropomorphic foxes in fiction. A lot of them take after Renamon or the like to be very pretty and upright. While Zoroark's still a design I'd describe as “pretty,” it's also very gangly and menacing, complete with the shit-eating grin, long face, and a design the emphasizes a flow into aggressive forward...ness.

My one solitary issue with the design is that its midsection looks a bit too skinny. I get it, sleek, tricky fox. But that's a step too far, I feel.

Personal Score: 10/10

A pair of near-perfect tricky foxies!!

Overall:

Ohhhh no. We're not getting off Matt's wild ride that easily. It's my absolute favorite, so instead of an “overall” segment, I'm gonna take a number from Bogleech and say let's do a...

Top 10 Things I Love About Zorua and Zoroark:

1. A Fox

Let's get this out of the way since that's a given. But I don't meant to point that out because I'm shallow like that; I can get REALLY picky about how my fox monsters look. But rather, these two are plenty unique among the other fox or fox-like Pokemon. Sure, I love me some Vulpix, Fennekin, and some of the Eeveelutions, but they all end up sharing the same general cutesy look. Zorua on the other hand takes on a whole other personality from the previously established foxy Pokemon. And Zoroark too! Ninetales and Delphox generally lean more toward looking beautiful more than anything, but that's not Zoroark's sole focus here. Instead, we get a much cooler looking monster with a more gangly face, which is a type of fox-look sorely missing from the foxmons all the way up until now. The only downside is that it isn't full gangly crookedness like Murkrow. But that's fine by me.

2. The Kabuki Dancer Theme

More prominent with Zoroark, for sure, is the fact that these two take heavily after Kabuki theater. Zoroark's really rocking the tons-o-hair look, with the both sporting some red markings to look like makeup.

3. Their Color Scheme

It's hard to go wrong with black and red, sure. That's a pretty go-to color scheme for something shady or, dare I say, “edgy”. But it serves these two better than most given they lean more toward the “shifty shadows” type of critter than “ultimate edgelord” like Shadow or Reaper or what have you. Then you also add in the teal, bluish green. Just the absolute perfect amount. A tiny accent and little more. Not too obtrusive or anything, because too much of that color could've easily thrown the whole thing off. But they held their restraint. Thank goodness.

4. Their Faces

I've gone over Zoroark's face enough by now, and how wonderful it is. But Zorua's adorably smug look and sly fox visage is the totally perfect foxy face. Now flaws. Just a sleezy friend.

5. They're Fluffy as Hell

Okay, this one I will admit is shallow as heck. But I don't care. Zorua's got the good ol neck ruff that makes it look super huggable. Zoroark may be sorely lacking a tail, but it plenty makes up for it with that big, poofy head of hair. Hair so big and poofy that their Zorua children can sleep in it. That's cute as hell.

6. The Okami Vibes

Obviously not in art style or even saying they deliberately went for an Okami look, but they certainly look like they wouldn't be too out of place as a creature out of Okami wouldn't they? Zoroark's design even calls Ninetails to mind, even moreso than the actual Ninetales. While Okami does tend to favor ogre-ish and Oni-like designs for their monsters, they do have such creatures running around like the tricky Tube Fox.

7. They Don't Kill Each Other's Vibe

It happens far too often that a cute or unique Pokemon will evolve into an ultimate badass that, while cool, end up really losing out on the original form's charm. These two, while pretty drastically different, aren't so completely detached that I'd say Zoroark is missing the same aesthetic cues of Zorua or vice versa!

8. They're Even Fun To Use Ingame!

Because of their Illusion ability, they can end up having a unique play pattern different form most other Pokemon. Especially if you're playing in the single-player parts of the game. Sadly, Zoroark can be predicted into with online battles since you get to see team layouts, but in a regular casual playthrough of a Pokemon game it's definitely fun to watch the AI fall for your disguise tricks. Especially when you disguise your Zoroark as a Fighting or Poison type fighting a Psychic type and watch as they hopelessly attempt to use Psychic moves against a Dark type.

I've also got a fun fascination with shapeshifting, so. Even psuedo-shapeshifting like with these two is neat. Ditto is cool and all but. A fox that shapeshifts? Get outta here. Now you're just toying with me.

9. Ridiculously Photogenic

Yeah, I guess technically any Pokemon is subject to this but. Just looking at illustrations of them is always really nice. Especially when you find really good ones. TCG art is for the most part pretty great, so of course I'm a fan of the illustration on certain cards.

10. Extremely Fun to Draw

Yeah, maybe that's not a totally fair thing but. I really can't say I'd ever get tired of drawing these two. I could draw them into infinity if I really wanted to just never draw anything else ever. That's the true problem with the world! To many things that are also fun to draw! Keeping me from drawing Zorua constantly! Bah!

There are two shames to this line. One being you could say that these two are pretty much sequels to Riolu and Lucario, Pokemon I've previously tore into. And Pokemon's not seemed shy of introducing, I hate putting it this way but, “furrybait” Pokemon. So these two had a success formulated in much the same way as Lucario. But they both pull it off so much more tastefully than Lucario's nonsense design does.

The other bummer being that, in a post-Gen 5 world, their popularity has significantly fallen off. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with Pokemon other than my absolute favorites getting some time in the limelight, but it's so annoying seeing repeated Pokemon Marketing All-Stars that you find boring getting things like Mega Evolutions or Alolan Forms with your top favorite Pokemon of all time sadly getting left out. Lucario can get a Mega, Charizard can get two, but not Zoroark?!

Anyway, sure, this review has gone on long enough. Fiiiiine. I got to sing all the praise I can. Fox Pokemon has historically been the best of the canid Pokemon. So hopefully all foxes from this point onward don't disappoint. You got high standards to live up to!

[Archive]

#Pokemon #Zorua #Zoroark #Pokemon Reviews #570 Zorua #571 Zoroark

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nullum-nocte · 6 years ago

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fireredrules’ pokemon team dynamics rp meme.

( please repost with everything attached! ) answer each prompt with whichever of your muse’s pokemon fit it best. feel free to include multiple pokemon per answer or extra details as to why they might fit the prompt. if one doesn’t apply, just put N/A

Who is most likely to steal their trainer’s food?

Golbat hands down. She will take whatever she can get her grubby wings on. Though she’s easy enough to ward off and protect your food from. She’ll always manage to bumble around and get found out.

Who is most likely to rebel or ignore orders during a battle?

Mimikyu, though it’s not even Gladion pokemon so it has free reign to do what it wants anyway. For the rest of the captured team, it’s really rare where they don’t follow the strategies that Gladion planned out beforehand. Only times they don’t would be if nothing Gladion has said fits in a situation so they’ll do what they think will win the match.

Who is the least welcoming of new pokemon/people?

It use to be Null in the beginning when they were learning their boundaries with Gladion. It took them a while to trust that Gladion wasn’t just going to throw them away so any add-on to the team made them uneasy. When Rockruff was brought on they both got into many spats over Gladion.

Sylveon takes that spot currently for most untrusting of people and pokemon ever. He’s downright paranoid of new team memebers / new people and is just waiting for them to turn on them and murder everyone. A bit extream but it’s how he thinks.

Who is the laziest?

Shiny Cutiefly close second being the Golbat and third being Umbreon. Though for Umbreon it’s less I'm lazy and more I’m content with being able to laze around and fight when I can.

Who stays up the latest, or doesn’t sleep at all?

Null, though that’s just due to Gladions own strange sleeping patterns. Nulls not able to run around as much as it wants so any time that Gladion takes them out of the pokeball they use that time to run around.

Lucario, Umbreon, and Lycanroc would stay up late if the team was sleeping in the forest. They keep watch for any other pokemon and do their best to ward them away.

Sylveon will not sleep if he’s out of his pokeball and in a strange area. He’ll only sleep when he’s in the motel room.

Who is the messiest?

Shiny Cutiefly due to it being basically a baby and always manages to get food stuck to her little face while eating. Golbat is kinda messy too but she usually cleans up after herself- or tries too it usually ends up becoming a bigger mess tho.

Who is the loudest?

Noivern, when she doesn't, get what she wants. She’ll throw a tantrum and even if she holds herself up to acting like a lady that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to throw a fit. Lycanroc gets pretty loud when he gets worked up and itching to fight as well.

Who considers themselves the ‘leader’?

Null is the official leader due to being Gladion’s first- but knowing that Null can’t be out of his Pokeball much the leader position lands on Lycanroc ‘s shoulders. After that would be Umbreon though she’s more of the second in command/ voice of reason towards Lycanroc’s need to sometimes fight literally everyone

Who is the weirdest?

Golbat...... she’s just so.... goofy. Goofy, impulsive, with little to no social grace her most common way to great people is licking or biting them. And with knowing that you know that’s gotten Gladion into trouble more times then he can count. Zoroark is pretty weird too but he’s a creepy kinda weird while Golbat is a goofy weird.

Who is the biggest cuddler?

Null wins first place in that field- they want to be cuddled all the time when they’re not running around stretching their legs. Second place is tied with Lyconroc and the Shiny Cutiefly

Who gets themselves into trouble the most often?

Golbat no one else gets in trouble more than her besides Lyconroc but at least he decides to get into trouble while she just happens upon it on accident.

Who hates bath time?

None of them particularly hate bath time, a lot of the time they all find it quite relaxing. Noivern is the closest to the hate category, that’s mostly due to not liking someone else cleaning her when she can do it herself. She prefers her fur being styled a certain way and only she knows how to do that.

Who gets the most visibly excited from seeing their trainer after a long absence?

Null who would most likely be outright sobbing if left alone for too long, Lycanroc and Lucario are right behind Null maybe not sobbing but definitely teary-eyed. Shiny cutiefly is the one that’d be squealing excitedly at Gladion’s return and not crying.

Who is most protective of their trainer?

Null, Lycanroc, Lucario, Sylveon. There is no tie or anything these four are the “protect Gladion squad”

Sylveon is the most likely out of the four of them to straight up start choking someone with his ribbons if he even gets the inkling that they're going to harm Gladion. At least the other three wait for the person to show malicious intent before thinking of attacking.

Who uses their charms/cuteness to try and get away with things?

Shiny Cutiefly cuz she’s just a little bug baby who doesn't even realize she’s using any charm to get out of stuff. She’s just that good. Zoroark will try but he more times than not fails spectacularly and scares people instead of charming them. That doesn't mean he doesn't succeed though, his success is just brought around by different means.

Who messes with other trainers for fun?

Lycanroc enjoys taunting people into fights and loves the fact that more times then not the other trainer is too pissed to realize their making mistakes in battles. He thinks it’s hilarious and enjoys watching them rage quit after the fight.

Who is the most submissive to their teammates?

Anna’s the most passive on the team and will do anything asked of her even if it’s questionable. She’d mostly do it because she’s afraid of being abandoned. With that in mind, it’s rare for any of the teammates to ask her for anything not wanting to presser her.

Shiny Cutiefly being the new addition knows this so she does what anyone asks... most of the time, she can kinda be a little bratty but it’s expected since she’s young.

Umbreon is pretty lax and doesn't mind doing most things if a teammate asks unless she doesn't want too. If she doesn't want too then they’re tough out of luck.

Who is the purest angel?

Anna is the shyest of the team who will do anything for them even if she’s unqualified to do said thing. She has a mixed air of maturity along with her innocence- she’s been through a lot so it’s not surprising.

Shiny Cutiefly is second because of her baby status.

Who gets jealous the most?

Null, Lycanroc, Lucario, Sylveon. aka Gladions protection squad again. They don't act out on their jealousy though, they are all more likely to go sulk until Gladion comes to them.

Who is the one laying on their trainer’s face in the morning?

Shiny cutifly but replace face with hair- she likes Gladions hair a lot and thinks it’s the best place to nap. Anna does this, (although it’s rare) when she’s lonely.

If Mimikyu ‘s around at the time then chances are high Gladion will wake up and scream due to the literal darkness incarnate wrapping it’s shadow arms around his head to keep it’s place on his face.

Who is the most distant from their trainer?

Noivern is more affectionately distant due to the personal standers she holds herself too. Yeah, she cares about Gladion but she doesn't want him to know that since she’s always held a grudge against him for being piss poor.

Zoroark and Mimikyu are second, Zoroark due to just being awkward with his affections and not feeling completely comfortable with showing his care. While Mimikyu is a wild pokemon who while it likes Gladion it doesn't feel the need to join his team- even if it stalks him basically everywhere. It personally likes it’s wild pokemon status and rather wouldn’t be caught.

Who is closest to their trainer?

Null due to being Gladions first, both Umbreon and Lyconroc are second as they’ve seen Gladion grow up and turn into the trainer they love and respect today.

Who is most alike their trainer in personality or habits?

Surprisingly that’s Zoroark, he shows off more of Gladions personality traits than most and that’s one reason why him and Gladion have a hard time connecting. They are way too alike in a way which causes some miscommunications or if there was a fight both are too afraid to go talk to the other to sort things out. Gladion is getting better with facing things like that so more times then not if they have a fight Gladion will go talk it out.

Null, Lycanroc, Lucario, all have Gladion’s deep loyalty and quick reflex to protect those they care about.

Who races ahead when on a walk?

Sylveon, it’s less racing ahead and more checking the area for threats to the team's safety. Shiny Cutiefly might fly ahead due to curiosities sake but will come right back once her curiosity is sedated.

Who is the most loyal/obedient?

Null, Lycanroc, Lucario, Sylveon are the most loyal out of the bunch. They will do anything and everything if it means protecting Gladion or doing what they think is best for him. The most obedient is Anna though it’s done out of anxiety of being abandoned, following orders was basically trained into her by her old trainer.

Who eats the most?

Noivern eats a lot though she’d blame it on having to eat more due to not having the “good stuff” aka more expensive stuff. Null is close second since they’re pretty big too. Golbat eats a lot of food just because she likes it and not because she’s hungry.

Who is the quietest?

Sylveon, he’s pretty timid due to his background and feels the need to always be on alert just in case there’s a sneak attack. Noivern is quite as well but that’s more because she doesn't see anyone else worthy of her attention.

Who is the clumsiest?

Golbat. Mimikyu can be a bit clumsy as well when it’s not looking where it’s going.

Who is the most hotheaded?

Lycanroc is the most hotheaded out of the bunch though one can say that’s just in his blood. Sylveon appears like an anxious mess (which he is) but once in battle and if angered he will cause some damage- unlike his appearance it’s not pretty.

Who is the ‘mom pokemon’?

That’s actually Anna even if she can’t express her emotions she still deeply loves everyone on the team. She cares a lot about how everyone is feeling and if everyone is comfortable. Though due to how she has selective mutism she can’t really find her voice to ask out loud. Her care can be see through her actions.

Tagged by: @toeachfuture Tagging: anybody who wants too ayyy

#[ Headcanons ] No one else better find out about this ⛓️#// remembered this was in my likes so here we go!

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11jj11 · 7 years ago

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Far From Yesterday - Ch 12 - Marissonshippng

A bit of a shorter chapter, but I hope you enjoy. :)

“How does anyone eat this?” Mairin muttered, eyeing the mass of spinach leaves on her fork with a scrunched up nose. “What do I look like, a Miltank?”

While Mairin may have not been the best when she was younger, she did understand the importance of having good food in her diet. But that didn’t mean that she’d eat whatever was suppose to be ‘healthy’. Sure, she’d have some carrots with her dinner or lettuce on her sandwich.

But salad was not a main course!

Especially when it was made mostly of bitter spinach.

But no, the stupid doctor had to make his stupid recommendations on what she should be eating, and what would be best for the baby. So of course Alain had rallied the whole lab against her, and suddenly the meals she was being offered were much different from what she wanted. And it wasn’t like she could just make her own food– her morning sickness combined with her poor cooking skills made it so she was never in the kitchen for long.

And since she had her amnesia, she had no idea where her current candy stashes even were!

“Chespie,” Mairin groaned, shoving her tray of salad away and leaning back on her bed. “Can you get me my phone? I’m ordering a pizza!”

“Naught,” Chespie rumbled, giving her a disapproving glare. She glared right back at the giant Pokemon, who was making no effort to grab her phone– which was in her purse on the other side of the room. She sighed, shifting to gaze towards Ruby, who was positioned like a guard at the foot of her bed.

The Absol was giving her a meaningful look, and finally Mairin sighed, and shoved another mouthful of the salad into her mouth.

Perhaps the worst part was that the greens didn’t trigger her morning sickness in anyway, meaning that she didn’t even have that excuse not to eat it. There were vitamin supplements she could be taking that could be giving her the same nutrition as this salad without the horrible taste– but everyone else agreed that having it naturally in her diet was better!

Deep down Mairin did agree as well– but she wanted something else besides salad. And she had already eaten the Tamato berries that had been put on top, meaning there was nothing else even remotely edible on her plate. She couldn’t even gripe about it to everyone else, because they were eating dinner at the table, and the mere smell of the meatloaf had made her feel dizzy. So instead she was eating up in her room with her Pokemon.

Okay, maybe she was being a bit dramatic, but she was going to demand ice cream after this.

“They better not make me do this the whole pregnancy,” Mairin muttered, shifting her salad about with her fork in hopes of finding more berries. “I won’t last that long.”

Ruby laid her head on the bed, giving her a reassuring smile. Mairin returned it, before taking another bite. She had been to the doctors three days before, which had got much smoother than her visit to the doctor about her amnesia. Of course it had taken place at an entirely different office with different people, which was very welcomed.

The appointment had been very brief, with mostly a kind nurse explaining to her what to expect in the following months, the prospect having been both exciting and daunting. In less than a year she’d be holding a child in her arms– her own baby.

They had learned that she was a month into the pregnancy– which had been pretty surprising to both her and Alain. Seeing how sick she had been, one would have thought that it would have been the same the days before her amnesia had hit. But according to Alain she had only felt under the weather the night before it had hit– nothing more.

But she was a month along– and according to the book that Sophie had lent her, this also meant that the baby’s heart had started beating– even if it would be a little longer before it’d be detectable from an ultrasound. Mairin didn’t care however, glad that with everything going in her life that she had something that was simply good news.

Of course she was still dealing with the nightmares– which had shifted last night back to the ones of her sleepwalking in the desert. She hadn’t had that one since her first night with her amnesia, and since she was now more familiar with Ruby it was still a bit startling to have her dream self be so cold and bitter to the Pokemon, ordering Bébé to attack the Absol everytime she approached.

Bébé...

Mairin pushed her half eaten salad to the side, sliding off the bed with a frown. She approached her dresser, grabbing her Pokeballs and isolating one from the rest. She stared down at Bébé’s empty Pokeball in thought, biting her bottom lip. She knew that the fairy type had always been fond of the greenhouse, but still...

In her twelve days of her amnesia, she hadn’t seen the Pokemon once.

The first few days the thought had been easier to brush aside, and in the more recent ones she had been dealing with so much emotional and physical stress that her mind had simply been too panicked to think clearly on every thought in her mind. But these last few days... they had been calmer. She had been more accepting of the situation. She was thinking things through.

And she knew that something was wasn’t right.

Keeping Bébé’s Pokeball in one hand she grabbed the scrapbook that Alain had given her off of the dresser as well, returning to the bed. She placed the Pokeball on the pillow as she sat, ignoring the gazes from her other Pokemon, and opened the scrapbook. She had spent the last few days looking over it, admiring the pictures inside and reading the labels she had put on the photos. Some she skimmed over, the like ones with her is a certain white dress, and focused on other less intimidating ones. Like the section with nothing but pictures of her Pokemon.

Mairin was flipping to the green pages– her past self had organized the scrapbook to be in rainbow order, the colors shifting through different shades, starting from light and continuing down towards darker hues. The section with all of her Pokemon were all in the lighter green section, and there was something she wanted to see. She paused as she came to the first few photos of Chespie, and she careful began to examine each photo.

She couldn’t help but notice that each picture of Chespie was angled so you couldn’t see the missing spike on his back.

Mairin continued combing through each page, the ones of Chespie shifting over to ones of Kiara, a majority of the photos showing the Pyroar napping. Sometimes other Pokemon could be seen in the background, but even that didn’t show what Mairin was searching for. The next photos were of Ruby, the Pokemon usually standing right next to Mairin– the only exception was the photo of the Absol showing off her mega stone, apparently from when she first got it.

Next up was Luke– whom Mairin seemed to have met at some sort of facility. The Riolu had a determined look in his eyes, which eventually shifted to pride in the photos showing him as a Lucario. But still, none of the pictures satisfied Mairin. She closed her eyes, before finally reaching the photos of Poppy– possibly the longest section yet. All were of the Popplio in every position possible, the young water type simply being its happy self.

Mairin nervously turned the pages– but the section of her Pokemon ended there.

Bébé was nowhere to be seen. Even in the background.

What was going on?

Mairin swiftly began pouring through the rest of the scrapbook, searching for some sign of the yellow Floette– or Florges– whatever she was now. Her eyes swiftly scanned each page, briefly looking at each photo before the page was turned. Her fingers dug into the blanket as she searched, breathing slightly strained. Ruby approached her, but Mairin didn’t even glanced at the dark type.

She wanted to know what had happened to one of her oldest Pokemon.

It was as Mairin was searching for Bébé that she noticed something else about the scrapbook– every now and then she came across a page that was off in color. It was a small detail, but since every other page shifted through the hues so flawlessly it was a bit surprising to come across a section that seemed to almost jump ahead, the color a bit darker than what she had been expecting. At first she didn’t pay much attention to it– but then she came across another section just like it. She paused at this, peering at the content of the page that featured the sudden shift.

It wasn’t just the colors that jumped, but what was on the pages too.

As if another page was supposed to be there.

Perhaps one time she could skip over with no problem, but the fact that she came across five sections like this made her head feel a bit heavy. It wasn’t like a page had fallen out, but rather like someone had purposely gone through and had taken out sections of the scrapbook. And while the idea would normally seem a bit strange, she knew just who would do something like that.

Mairin slammed the book shut, heart thumping angrily. It had seemed like such a thoughtful gift, finally Alain letting her see some of the past he had been keeping from her.

But no. He was still keeping things from her. Plucking them out as if it wasn’t something she should know– something about her own life!

And still not one hint of Bébé anywhere in the scrapbook. Mairin grabbed Bébé’s Pokeball, pushing herself to her feet. She hadn’t pressed the fact that things were being hidden from her, not wanting to disturb the peace that had settled into the lab, but honestly she’d had enough. She wasn’t a child. She wasn’t stupid. She had a right to know about her own life– and no one had a right to hide it from her!

She wanted answers.

“Stay here,” Mairin snapped at Ruby, who had followed her to the door. The Absol paused, and Mairin rolled her eyes. “Sorry, I know you’ve been nothing but nice to me, but I have a feeling that you’d just take Alain’s side. I want answers for once, so you can stay here.”

She realized that perhaps she had been a bit rude to the Pokemon as she snapped her bedroom door shut, but the frustration she had been keeping buried was finally worming its way to the surface. Mairin didn’t even bother to keep a small stomp from her steps as she made her way to the stairs. She stormed down them, stumbling slightly on the last few steps, but she managed to regain her balance.

She closed her eyes, before heading into the kitchen.

“Mairin,” Professor Sycamore said, smiling as she came in, though he looked slightly startled at her expression. “Is everything okay?”

They were all sitting around the table, one spot empty where she usually sat, and she glanced away as everyone raised their gaze to look at her. The scent from their dinner made her stomach twist, but she forced herself to ignore that. She hesitated for a moment, before fixing her glare onto Alain.

“I’m sick of this,” She snapped, a growl in her voice. She saw the looks of concern flash over each of their faces, but she kept her amber eyes locked on Alain’s blue ones.

“Of what?” He asked calmly, turning to face her.

“Of you keeping things from me!” Mairin snarled. “All of you! I have a right to know about my own life– and just keep pushing it away like it doesn’t matter.”

Alain’s gaze slide down to the table, and he sighed. “I believe we have other things to worry about, Mairin, why don’t we just put this aside–”

“No!” Mairin snarled, not quite sure of what to make of the sudden surge of anger, but she let it drive her. “We are not putting anything aside! I’m– I’m not some kid! I can handle it! It’s not your choice! You don’t get to decide what I get to know!”

Alain’s eyes met hers for a brief second, before once more sliding away. “Mairin. Calm down.”

“I’m not going to calm down!” Mairin shouted. “Not when you’re petty enough to remove pages from the freaking scrapbook,” He looked startled. “And yes, I noticed! I actually thought that you were trying to be nice, but that was just an attempt to placate me, wasn’t it? To get me to stop asking questions!”

He closed his eyes, and the other members of the lab shifted uncomfortably as the argument grew. Originally she had come down here to demand answers from all of them, but it seemed that her buried anger had decided to take the lead.

“Mairin, please sit down,” Professor Sycamore said in a tone clearly meant to lessen the tension. “I understand why you’re upset, so please sit down and tell us what exactly what you want to know.”

Mairin didn’t sit down, but she did close her eyes, taking in several deep breaths to calm herself. She was still angry when she opened them again, but her voice was much more controlled as she set Bébé’s Pokeball onto the dining room table.

“I want to know where Bébé is,” Mairin said in a low tone. “She’s not in her Pokeball, she’s not in the lab, and she’s not in any photos in the scrapbook. Where is she?”

Mairin felt the tension crawl back into the room– but this time it wasn’t from her. The other members of the lab stiffened, and Mairin was sure they were all going to Clamperl up, but slowly everyone’s gaze shifted from her to Alain. Professor Sycamore looked concerned, the girls startled, and Max was glaring at him.

“Alain...” Professor Sycamore began uncertainly. “You didn’t tell her?”

“...No,” Alain said after a moment, taking a bite of his food, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. The professor pulled back slightly, while Max’s hands curled into fists.

“You said you would!” Max shouted. “And you kept it from her? What– did you think she wouldn’t notice?!”

Alain glared at Max. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Alain...” Professor Sycamore began.

“She was happy!” Alain snapped, fork clattering to the table. “Don’t you get it? Mairin was happy! How on earth could you expect me to tell her?!”

“T-tell me what?” Mairin asked, a nervous edge slipping into her tone. Her eyes shifted between the lab members, all of whom couldn’t meet her eyes. Her voice cracked slightly. “Wh-what are you keeping from me?” Her eyes locked on Alain. “What happened to Bébé?”

Alain’s eyes met hers, and Mairin couldn’t help but pull back as she noticed a cold gleam in his gaze. He stood up, his whole persona seemingly shifting in moments. His expression hardened, and with the height he had over her he looked even more intimidating. Alain walked towards her, his glare locked on her.

“Fine,” He snapped, his tone sharp. “You want me to be straight with you? You want the truth?”

She naturally took a step back, but she gulped and forced herself not to recoil from his coldness. “Yes– I am sick of the lies.”

He continued walking towards her, and with the silence that had settled into the kitchen his footsteps echoed in her ears. She stumbled back, his blue eyes boring into her with a harshness she hadn’t seen since the fight. She could see the frustration in his gaze.

“I knew what I was doing, Mairin,” He growled. “Was it too much for you to just trust me? I was just trying to let you be happy.”

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to stop backing away. “I could never be happy being left in the dark.” His footsteps came to a stop, but still she kept her eyes close. “This is my life, and you don’t control it. I understand that you want to be there for me, but these lies only hurt.”

She opened her eyes, and found herself staring at Alain’s chest. She couldn’t bring herself to look up just yet, simply watching his strained breathing. Under his shirt she could see a small bump– where she knew the necklace with the wedding rings were. She let this fact calm herself, because no matter what, Alain did care about her. He clearly thought that what he was doing was right, even if it frustrated her to no end. She then raised her head, meeting his gaze. His icy blue eyes stared down at her– frustrated, calculating, and the smallest hint of panic. She tried to let her anger slip away, simply wanting the truth.

His expression hardened, and then he said, voice as cold as his eyes:

“Bébé is dead.”

#marissonshipping #alain pokmon #mairin pokemon #my fics

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smashmusicideas · 7 years ago

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April 3: The Tether Recovery, and Semi-Unique Techniques

You know, I’m not really sure what those wires or debris on the image are supposed to be. A holdover from testing, maybe?

One of Super Smash Bros. Brawl‘s many little inventions (albeit one that was an evolution of a similar mechanic in Super Smash Bros. Melee) was the tether recovery, a move in which certain characters would fire a chain or beam or rope of some kind in the air as they approached the stage, and which would affix itself to its top corner. It’s a simple idea, albeit one that is fairly limited: as a grab it can be slow (yo, Toon Link), and as Olimar and Ivysaur showed, its effectiveness as a recovery was more situational than a move to save you from a K.O. should be. It was reduced in importance in the following game - Ivysaur and (temporarily) Lucas were cut, Olimar and Zero Suit Samus were given more reliable recoveries (though the latter did keep it as a grab attack), and Sheik’s Chain side special was changed to Burst Grenade. It’s odd; many of the things Brawl added that were taken away was because of dislike (random tripping) or difficulty in retaining it (The Subspace Emissary), but this became less of a deal more from chance than anything else.

But I really like tether recoveries, even though I never use them, because they are something I think is really cool: a mechanic that is somewhat unique. So certain characters have access to tether recoveries (mostly all from things in their own game, like Link’s Clawshot or Lucas’ Rope Snake), and they can be really or not particularly important in how to play them. But these are the only characters who have access to this mechanic. It’s not purely unique, like Lucario’s Aura or Ryu’s inputs, but it’s also not a universal system.

I’m not really sure if we’ve got a good term for these - or even if one really needs to exist - but I think it’s a useful design decision. It allows a baseline mechanic to be used for more than just one character without being so commonplace that the move lacks its distinctness. It’s a bit reminiscent of the notion of unequal balance in competitive games: if certain characters are slightly better, then it creates an imbalance, but that imbalance can lead to other characters being used as counters - and subsequent counters for those (altogether leading to scenarios in which just choosing the “best” character is not a useful strategy).

I’d like to see some more of these mechanics get developed or pushed, but for now, the Tether Recovery is pretty great. I would like to see a few more characters use it, though. Just, you know, not everyone.

(Link to my writings on Smash Bros for Nintendo Switch)

#Super Smash Bros.#Nintendo Switch #Smash for Switch #Tether recovery

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pokemaniacal · 7 years ago

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Cutiefly and Ribombee

Today’s Pokémon are… not bees. We think.

As their species designation – the Bee Fly Pokémon – attests, Cutiefly and Ribombee are based (in Ribombee’s case, somewhat loosely and with the addition of fairy-like traits) on bee flies. Bee flies, as their remarkably inventive name suggests, are a family of insects within the fly order, Diptera, that pollinate flowers and look like bees, though they are usually smaller. They are related to predatory robber flies, and despite their fuzzy appearance, most bee flies are parasites that will lay their eggs on the larvae of other insects, typically beetles or solitary bees, resulting in the slow and gruesome death of the larvae. There are over 5000 species of bee fly around the world (because clearly the world needed that many), but the particular one referenced by Cutiefly is the adorable internet celebrity Anastoechus nitidulus, a rare species that lives only in southwest Japan, in the area around the city of Okayama. As far as I can tell, this species is so rare, and bee flies in general are so poorly studied by entomologists, that it doesn’t even have an English name – I’ve seen them called “tiger bee flies,” which I think is an attempt to translate the Japanese name toratsuri-abu, but in English the name “tiger bee fly” ought to refer to a different species of bee fly, the larger, blacker and more sinister-looking Xenox tigrinus, which can be found throughout North America. Thankfully, Cutiefly already represents a fully adult bee fly, so we don’t have to observe first hand the family’s parasitic tendencies; instead we see only the adults’ more palatable diet of nectar, which they harvest with their mosquito-like proboscises. Cutiefly and Ribombee express this through their flavour text, through the Honey Gather ability they share with Combee, and through their in-game distribution in the areas in and around Alola’s Oricorio meadows.

Unlike real bee flies (as far as we know), Cutiefly and Ribombee have the ability to sense the “auras” of living things. “Aura” here, we should notice, is not the same thing as the spiritual power that can be manipulated by Lucario and other Pokémon that learn the Aura Sphere attack (which Ribombee doesn’t get). This more famous and consequential “Aura” (capital A) translates a Japanese phrase (nami shirube) meaning something like “wave-guiding power,” whereas the “aura” that Cutiefly can see is referred to in Japanese by a simple transliteration of the English word “aura” (ora), presumably in reference to the colourful energy fields that New Age psychics can see around people and other living things. This latter phenomenon is perhaps best known for being bull$#!t, but we can’t hold that against Cutiefly; after all, we’re in an escapist fantasy world in which “life force” does seem to be a thing. What all this means is that, instead of being able to destroy their enemies with destructive blasts of radiant energy, Cutiefly and Ribombee can see flowers sometimes.

Don’t worry; I’m sure it’s worth it.

Cutiefly and Ribombee apparently use their supernatural sense mainly to locate flowers in bloom, because their auras shine particularly bright at that point in their life cycle. This allows them to pillage the flowers’ sweet, sweet nectar. They also sometimes cluster around certain people whose auras resemble those of flowers in bloom when they are emotional, presumably because those people are also frivolous attention-seeking decorations whose only real purpose in life is reproduction (listen, I’m a Grass-type specialist; I care about how flowers actually work; if you want someone to romanticise them, go talk to one of those hippy Fairy trainers). According to the Ultra Moon Pokédex, Cutiefly can also read opponents’ intentions in their auras to predict their actions, not unlike Espeon’s ability to sense the subtle movements of an imminent attack by reading air currents, thus explaining how such a small and fluffy Pokémon hasn’t yet been squashed into extinction. Given all that, it’s interesting that these Pokémon aren’t Psychic-types, especially since Bug/Psychic would be just as new a combination as Bug/Fairy, and even compared to other Bug Pokémon like Butterfree they can develop a fairly wide range of psychic powers. The lines are further blurred by the fact that “classic” fairies have insectoid traits – what is that makes Butterfree, for instance, not a Fairy-type? It could be that we should consider empathy-related abilities to be more a Fairy-type than a Psychic-type characteristic: consider here the addition of the Fairy type to the Ralts line, who formerly had the most overt focus on empathic powers of any Psychic-type, or the emotion-focused abilities of Fairy-types like Togekiss and Sylveon. That doesn’t really tell us anything new about Ribombee, but I’m willing to jump on anything I can get to try and understand what the Fairy type’s identity is supposed to be.

All of this aura-sensing stuff is done in aid of gathering the nectar and pollen of flowers to create a variety of different types of pollen balls. Adult bee flies, of course, feed on nectar, and in the process of gathering it they tend to pick up quite a bit of pollen in the same way as bees do. They don’t really do anything with pollen, though; that’s where the bee-like side of Cutiefly and Ribombee becomes more important. Adult honeybee workers mainly live off a portion of the nectar they collect for the hive, storing the rest of it as honey so they can eat during the winter. Growing larvae, on the other hand, need more protein as they develop, and they get this from pollen, which worker bees mix with a little bit of nectar and their own saliva and pack into hard pellets to store. The pollen then ferments into a highly nutritious substance called bee bread, which is an important part of the diet of larval bees. As far as I know, honeybees have never been recorded launching explosive pollen balls at their enemies in an attempt to cause them misery and dismay, but they are mysterious creatures whose ways are manifold and enigmatic, so it’s possible we just haven’t observed that yet. Like bee flies, Ribombee seems to be solitary, or at least the Pokédex makes no mention of complex social structures like those of honeybees, so they aren’t using their pollen balls to feed larvae. However, we know that Ribombee hates rain – she shares honeybees’ ability to predict weather conditions from changes in air pressure, and only goes foraging when the skies are clear for several days in a row. The ability to store food for her down time must therefore be quite important. Finally, to continue Cutiefly and Ribombee’s theme of things that are essentially bull$#!t, Ribombee’s pollen balls are sold in Alola as a “super-food,” much like bee pollen is in the real world. Real bee pollen is rich in protein and other nutrients, but like all “super-foods” its actual health benefits don’t even begin to live up to the marketing hype, and harvesting it in large quantities is extraordinarily wasteful because of its importance to the hive’s own life cycle. Of course, Ribombee is literally magic, and can produce a wide variety of different pollen mixtures with distinct positive and negative effects, so it’s just possible that the Alolans aren’t credulous morons for thinking it cures cancer or whatever. For more on what Ribombee’s pollen definitely can do for you, let’s talk about her Pollen Puff attack.

Pollen Puff is Ribombee’s signature move, a respectable Bug-type special attack that bombards a target with explosive pollen balls. In singles, whether to take this over Bug Buzz is kind of a matter of taste. Pollen Puff has 15 PP where Bug Buzz only has 10, but… eh, how often do you actually run out of PP on moves with more than 5, especially if you can afford PP Up? Bug Buzz is probably marginally better because of its 10% chance to reduce a target’s special defence. In doubles, though, Pollen Puff has a cool little dual-use utility function – if you target an ally with it, Pollen Puff will restore 50% of their health. Ribombee basically gets to know Heal Pulse without actually giving up a move slot for it, which is pretty nifty. That should already clue us in that Ribombee is meant to be a supporter. She’s deathly fragile against both physical and special attacks, but is actually the second-fastest Fairy-type in the game after Tapu Koko, and possessed of a very impressive support movepool. Want to slow or disable the enemy team? She’s got Stun Spore, and picks up Trick and Sticky Web (the speed-lowering field hazard) in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, from a new move tutor and as a new egg move, respectively. Maybe protecting and healing your own team is more your style? Ribombee can learn Reflect, Light Screen and Aromatherapy. Prefer to play cheerleader with Baton Pass? Ribombee learns Quiver Dance, and the only other Pokémon with both are Venomoth and Masquerain, who have slightly better defences but are much slower and have weaker type combinations. Want to do something really weird and super dumb? Well, Ribombee’s got you covered there too, for what it’s worth, because she’s got Skill Swap, Magic Room, Wonder Room, Helping Hand, After You and Ally Switch. There’s even Speed Swap, an interesting new move from Sun and Moon that Ribombee can get as an egg move from Alolan Raichu, one of only two Pokémon that learn it naturally (the other is Pheromosa). Like Diamond and Pearl’s Guard Swap and Power Swap, it’s a fairly self-explanatory move: the user swaps the relevant stats with the target. Obviously this is a terrible thing for Ribombee to do in singles, where she’ll be faster than most of her opponents, but it could create some interesting combos in doubles by allowing her to bestow her excellent speed on a slow but powerful ally.

When Ribombee tries to do any fighting for herself, the picture gets somewhat less rosy. As we’ve already seen she gets Quiver Dance, and she has a respectable special attack score, so there might be an argument there for just taking three attacks – probably Bug Buzz, Moonblast and Psychic – and going to town. Fairy is such a good type that a boosted Moonblast is scary coming from just about anything; the trouble is that Ribombee has no special attacks worth using against Fire or Steel Pokémon, barring Hidden Power, so as Quiver Dancers go, she’s fairly easy to stop. Also, although Quiver Dance bolsters special defence, her physical defences will still have the consistency of fruit yoghurt. I don’t want to undersell Quiver Dance, because that move alone can work wonders for an otherwise mediocre Pokémon, but eventually you’re going to have to ask yourself why you aren’t using Volcarona, or even Venomoth, who has many shortcomings but outshines Ribombee on offence because the Tinted Lens ability makes his attacks almost impossible to resist. Ribombee can heal herself with Roost, but her defences are so flimsy that this is unlikely ever to be the best use of her time; better to use her speed with Baton Pass or U-Turn to just keep her from taking damage as much as possible in the first place. Despite a large and interesting support movepool, Ribombee has relatively few good options to add spice to a straightforward offence gameplan. Support is what she’s good at, and she has a large enough range of tricks that she won’t necessarily be predictable if she sticks to the utility side of things.

You might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned Ribombee’s abilities yet, and that’s because they’re frankly not very important to her playstyle, or particularly inspiring. The Shield Dust ability negates the side effects of damaging moves, things like the burn chance of Fire attacks or the special defence penalty caused by Psychic (moves that don’t cause damage, like Will’o’Wisp, work normally). This is fine, but you don’t really need fancy debuffs to knock out Ribombee; plain old damage will do that. If you can be bothered chasing down a Cutiefly with their hidden ability, Sweet Veil, immunity to sleep is nice, especially in multiple battles where it will be shared with partners, and if nothing else it’s pleasingly thematic. The only other alternative is Honey Gather, which does nothing in battle, and… honestly it basically does nothing out of battle either; honey is only useful in Sinnoh (where it’s the only way to attract certain Pokémon like Cherubi and Munchlax) and Kalos (where it can trigger wild horde battles – but even then, Sweet Scent does the same thing and has unlimited uses). The ability is basically in the game to make absolutely sure that everyone knows how worthless Combee is – which I think is something we can all get behind.

The main draw of Cutiefly and Ribombee is their relationship to a particularly rare Japanese insect that has become surprisingly iconic in recent years, mostly for its obvious cuteness, which is probably a big part of why they’re Fairy-types (the most important attributes of most Fairy Pokémon being “cute” and “pink”). The result is appealing but a little bland – pollinating isn’t unusual enough a trait for Bug Pokémon to be particularly interesting, the similarity between flying insects and traditional Western fairies is a bit of an obvious direction to take for this type combination, and even weather sensitivity has sort of been done before with Masquerain (albeit in a way that seems at odds with his in-game characteristics). On the other hand, it’s a bit of exposure for an unusual insect that’s endangered and not yet very well studied by scientists. A wide range of support powers, combined with the possibility of going on the offensive with Quiver Dance, makes Ribombee interesting to use, though it’s a shame that her ability choices are so dull. Her fragility makes it difficult to claim that she can be top tier, and like many seventh generation Pokémon she’s much stronger and more flexible in doubles than in singles, but I don’t think there’s anything clearly wrong with her, and there are a couple of things she does arguably better than any other Pokémon. All said and done, I have to call this one at least passable.

#pokemon #alola #alola pokedex #cutiefly #ribombee #bugtypes #fairytypes

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